The present invention relates generally to a computer- and software-based system and method for viewing a domain of information represented as a network of data objects that are connected or associated by relationships. The domain of information is presented to a computer system user via a graphical user interface permitting the domain to be viewed along various data object type axes so the context and relationships are revealed and both structure and detail are presented at the same time.
The so-called modem xe2x80x9cinformation agexe2x80x9d has meant that more people have access to more information that at any point in human history. The proliferation of the Internet, World Wide Web, organizational intranets and e-mail has meant that information about nearly any topic is almost immediately accessible.
In fact, information is not merely readily xe2x80x9cavailable.xe2x80x9d Huge amounts of information is often targeted to individuals who scarcely have time to view and process it. Thus, the secondxe2x80x94and ongoingxe2x80x94stage of the information age revolution is the well-documented problem of xe2x80x9cinformation glut.xe2x80x9d In short, so much information is available, much of it targeted, that it overwhelms even the most dedicated person. It is not uncommon, for example, to hear of overwhelmed corporate executives spending hours each day sifting through hundreds of e-mails. Virtually every user of the Internet has experienced the frustration of seeking information on a topic by using a xe2x80x9csearch engine,xe2x80x9d only to receive hundreds of thousands or even millions of xe2x80x9chits.xe2x80x9d
In the organizational context, the problem of information glut is particularly acute. For example, a profit-oriented business organization may have hundreds or thousands of employees and support personnel. Each may have a different title, role, specialty, education and job history. Each may work on several different projects. Each may generate thousands of e-mails per year. Each may generate dozens or hundreds of documents per year. Each document may have several recipients. The organization may have several different departments, each having a number of product lines. The organization may have a number of geographically separated sites or factories. The organization may have a number of corporate affiliates, such as partly or wholly owned subsidiaries or parent organizations. The organization may be associated with a number of suppliers, support entities, dealers, distributors, retailers and so forth.
As can be appreciated, the aforementioned various aspects or attributes of an organization represent information or organizational xe2x80x9cknowledge.xe2x80x9d An organization is more efficient if it can managexe2x80x94that is, collect and processxe2x80x94this information so as to derive the inherent benefits of this organizational knowledge. In an era where xe2x80x9cinformation is power,xe2x80x9d the effective management of organizational knowledge can be the difference between enterprises that fail and those that thrive.
As mentioned above, the problem of xe2x80x9cinformation glutxe2x80x9d is particularly acute in the organizational context. This is partly because of the pure xe2x80x9cheftxe2x80x9d or quantity of information. This is the case also because of the many relationships between discrete pieces of information or xe2x80x9cdata items.xe2x80x9d These relationships not only present issues as to how the data items should be organized and presented; the interrelationships between data items represent information in themselves. In fact, discerning otherwise not-readily-apparent relationships is very often the key to truly understanding data items. The difficulty, however, and the challenge of organizational knowledge management, is that as the number of data items increases, the number of interrelationships tends to increase even faster, to the point where the capacity of the human brain to process and order this information is quickly overrun.
Several approaches to more effectively managing information in the computer age have been proposed and have fallen substantially short. So-called xe2x80x9cpushxe2x80x9d technology has been used to automatically and selectively retrieve information from the Internet so that users receive only what they want. Typically, the user identifies topics or sites of interest, and a server will periodically retrieve updated information to be downloaded in the form of browser pages or a screen saver with summaries and links to additional information. One example of push technology is the product previously marketed as PointCast(trademark) (and, more recently, as EntryPoint(trademark)) by PointCast, Incorporated. However, push technology suffers from the drawback that it does not reveal relationships between distinct data items. Nor does it allow for the presentation of multiple data items so as to present detail and structure at the same time. In short, push technology may alleviate some of the information glut for the solitary Internet user, but it has little application to the organizational knowledge problem described above.
Another attempt to solve the information glut problem has been so-called xe2x80x9cdata mining,xe2x80x9d such as the Suite 101(trademark) on-line xe2x80x9ccommunity-based web guidexe2x80x9d offered by the Mining Company at the site www.suite101.com. In this approach, dedicated editors retrieve and review information on a variety of topics from selected sites on the Internet. Somewhat analogous to the xe2x80x9cthumbs-up, thumbs-downxe2x80x9d paradigm for reviewing movies and the theater, these editors attempt to direct users to the best of the Internet through the use of summaries and reviews. However, data mining technology suffers from the same drawbacks as push technology when it comes to application in the organizational knowledge context.
Other approaches to processing distinct but interrelated data items include so-called xe2x80x9cfuzzy logicxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cneural networkxe2x80x9d (sometimes loosely referred to xe2x80x9cartificial intelligencexe2x80x9d) processing algorithms. Speaking broadly, these approaches attempt to emulate the ability, if not the processing xe2x80x9carchitecturexe2x80x9d outright, of the human brain insofar it is able to xe2x80x9csiftxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9csynthesizexe2x80x9d otherwise unconnected pieces of data to discern new and broader meanings. Despite some of the initial fanfare which suggested that such automated systems would be able to xe2x80x9clearnxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cthink,xe2x80x9d they have found little meaningful application outside of the scientific realm.
In sum, in an era that can be characterized as having increased organizational concentration, complexity, and competitiveness, the ability to process and discern the meaning of the huge quantity of organizational information remains a significant and, to date, unsolved problem.
Other problems and drawbacks exist.
Accordingly, it is one object of the present invention to overcome one or more of the aforementioned and other limitations of existing systems and methods for managing and processing discrete pieces of information, particularly in the context of an organization. The largely unfulfilled promise of artificial intelligence technologies and the like indicates that the human brain can be the superior processor, but only if the information can be presented without overwhelming the user. This is the significant challenge the present invention meets.
For these and like reasons, what is desired is a computer-based system and method for representing a domain of information as a network of data objects connected or associated by relationships so that both detail and structure are discernible.
It is another object of the invention to provide a computer-based system and method for representing such a domain of information where multiple types of data objects can be presented which are associated by multiple types of relationships.
It is another object of the invention to present such a domain of information whereby information can be derived by selecting a node object in a primary object set in order to establish its relationships to other, related node objects in secondary object sets.
It is yet another object of the computer-based system and method to present the domain of information as network in the form of a dynamic table of data objects which can be pivoted to show data objects in their various contexts and present different views of the same information.
It is another object of the invention to present such a domain of information whereby any object type is a valid entry point into the network of objects and, specifically, whereby any object type can be selected as the primary set to be displayed with related secondary sets of data objects.
It is another object of the invention to display groups of data objects as object sets so as to reveal common traits or attributes.
It is another object of the invention to allow data objects to be selected in order to present related data objects in order to reveal unsuspected relationships.
It is another object of the invention to present such a domain of information comprising a universe of data objects, each comprising an object type, and each object type having one or more attributes, the attributes capable of application to filter a list of data objects according to selected attribute values or entries.
It is another object of the invention to present such a domain of information providing context filtering whereby the domain context for a first data object in a first primary data set can be filtered by a related second data object in a secondary data set such that the remaining secondary data sets present only data related to both the first data object and the selected second data object.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide said context filtering in multiple dimensions across data sets such that cross-relationships between data objects in multiple data sets can be discerned.
To achieve these and other objects of the present invention, and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and as broadly described, an embodiment of the present invention comprises a computer- and software-based apparatus and method (sometimes referred to herein as the Object Network Viewer(trademark)) for managing and presenting information of an organization, undertaking or entity. The system and method present the information as a domain of data objects which can be grouped according to their category or xe2x80x9cobject type,xe2x80x9d and which can be associated with other data objects, of same or differing object types, according to a myriad of relationship types.
The system and method present the network of objects using a computer-generated graphical user interface (GUI) which may comprises a series of tables or trees or other means for representing a set. The system and method may be integrated with a database for storing the underlying data, such as Lotus Notes(trademark). In one embodiment, the invention provides for display of a primary object set comprising a plurality of primary data objects sharing a common object type. On the same or a related GUI display, a plurality of other object sets, known as xe2x80x9csecondary object sets,xe2x80x9d are displayed in order to present data objects related to the data objects of the primary object set. When a data object in the primary set is selected (by cursor or similar means), each of the secondary object sets will display data objects related to the selected data item in the primary set. In this manner, when the user selects a data object in the primary object set, links to other related data objects (of the same or differing object type) are identified in the domain of information.
Each data type may have a series of attributes (e.g., name, size, date of creation, and so forth) that may be displayed with the data items in the primary (or secondary) object set, and which can further be used to order or filter the object set.
The system and method enable the user to xe2x80x9cnarrow the contextxe2x80x9d of a selected data object in the primary object set by further selecting one or more data objects in related secondary object sets. The result is that the remaining secondary object sets will emphasize the data objects which have relationships to each of the selected primary data object and the selected secondary data object(s). The effect of this xe2x80x9ccontext filteringxe2x80x9d operation is to emphasize or identify otherwise unapparent cross-relationships between three or more data objects.
The system and method further supports the presentation of the data objects along multiple data type axes, so-called xe2x80x9cview pivoting,xe2x80x9d in order to view data in different contexts or domain dimensions. Because any object type is a valid xe2x80x9centry pointxe2x80x9d into the object network, the domain can be viewed with any object type as the primary set. By selecting (e.g., by cursor or so-called xe2x80x9cdrop-down menuxe2x80x9d) a secondary data object, the corresponding secondary object set becomes the primary object set, and the primary object set now becomes a secondary object set. This allows the user to view the same sub-network of data along different object type axes so as to discern new relationships, context and, ultimately, meaning.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute part of this specification, illustrate several embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. It will become apparent from the drawings and detailed description that other objects, advantages and benefits of the invention also exist.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description that follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the system and methods, particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.